Paul was a Rabbi, but according to Jewish practice, every Rabbi must have a trade and Paul was a tentmaker. The Jew glorified work, "love work," they said. "He who does not teach his son a trade teaches him robbery. In Jesus' time spinning was still done in the home. Tentmaking. They learned fine tapestry making.. skillful with her needle.. made fine embroidery for royalty and nobles.. sat down to her embroidery frames.. Her work became endless - water to carry, meal to grind, fish to clean for the market, until there was not time and her fingers became too rough for the fine silks.. To her had been given tapestries of tender flesh and blood upon which to embroider the fair patterns of the soul. There are several thousand silk looms in this city (modern Damascus) run be women and little girls, the little tots doing their work with skill and energy. The silk that is made and woven in Damascus has a market in many nations of the earth. The brass, silver and gold shops are a scene of considerable importance and activity. To see their little simple and ancient working tools is strange but fascinating to one of the New World. Their little stores are simple and small, comprising a little room, with three even walls, the front and fourth wall being removed; this is used as the door, and can be replaced at leisure.. no windows, no burglars. Let her learn how to spin wool, to hold the distaff, to put the basket in her lap, to turn the spinning wheel and to shape the yarn with her thumb. Let her put away with disdain silken fabrics Chinese fleeces, and gold brocades, the clothing she makes for herself should keep out the cold and not expose the body which it professes to cover.

A journeyman works anywhere. Tools are the luggage of a tradesman. Work and live anywhere, in small towns or great cities, fairly sure of making a good living. Metalworkers, working in iron and brass. Large work, with a workshop. Carpenters, working on benches and shelves and cupboards, working in wood and metalwork.

The flaxen scroll coverings recovered form the cave.. the fragments appear to have come from small cloths, definitely shaped and sewn.. Some of the cloths were decorated with blue lines in the weft.. the dye was certainly indigo.. Carpentry: In those days the Romans controlled the balsam trade, getting a royalty from plantation owners on every shell. The balsam trade was a busy one and kept many workers employed; all around the city were plantations.. The water there was shallow enough for wading, and the women dried their wet cloths on several large boulders nearby. On washday each week the women of the village gathered there to do the family laundry-and catch up on the local gossip. The smaller children would be left at the river's bank to splash in the shallow pools.. women scrubbed away..

A part of a shipherd's usual equipment was a staff or crook. The staff's hook was made for fitting around the neck of a wayward sheep, using it as a tool for guidance.

Garment industry. Commerce among the Hebrews was restricted, as they were not a sea-faring people. They, however, carried on considerable trade with foreign countries.. Joppa had a maritime trade, to some extent oil was exported.. and fine linen and ornamental girdles, of domestic manufacture were sold to the merchants. The internal trade of the Jews was much promoted by the annual festivals held at Jerusalem. The exchangers carried their traffic even into the temple enclosure. Baskets were frequently woven or made of fiber from leaves of the palm tree or rushes, leaves and twigs. Some were used especially for holding bread.. grapes and carrying fruit. In Egypt heavy burdens, as grain, were carried in large baskets swung from a pole hung on the shoulders.. sometimes large enough to hold a man. Paul was lowered from the wall of Damascus from such. Bottles of skin were manufactured from whole animal hides by slowly drying them.. Jesus referred to the wine bottle which bursts when new wine is put in the old skins. Such skins were also used to churn butter.

The Jews learned the art of brick-making in Egypt, using almost the identical method. Even now in Palestine bricks are made from moistened clay mixed with straw and dried in the sun. Manual labor was generally held in low esteem by the Greeks, in later times many free citizens declining to engage in it at all. Romans also seem to have thought that there was something objectionable in mechanical labor, and in many wealthy homes this was mostly done by slaves.. not among the Jews. [see labor] among the celebrated rabbis we find shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, sandal makers, smiths, potters, builders, etc. Nor were they ashamed of their manual labor. Apothecary, armorer, baker, brickmaker, builders, carver, confectioner, dyer, embalmer embroiderer, fuller, gardener, glass worker, goldsmith, leather worker, mason, metal worker, perfumer, plasterer, potter, refiner shoemaker, workers in stone. One jeweler who dispatched camels to various parts of the east had turquoise from Arabia, alabaster from Crete, amethyst and carelian from Greek traders and chalcedony from Punt. [304, 318, 325, 331, 334, 345, 347, 352, 368, 373, 15, 377, 415, BD, 392]

The Lord has given Christians the grace to reconcile the children to their Fathers